Summer
by valele
Summary: Maybe Shane and Nate being away all summer won’t be so bad after all.


85. Summer

Jason hates summer. Summer is bad, because it means Shane and Nate go away to their fancy people houses and they leave him alone in a small town where there's nothing to do and all the kids are mean anyway. Shane and Nate are Jason's best friends, so when they're not with him, Jason doesn't know what to do.

So now it's the summer between second and third grade, and Shane and Nate are at their big houses (his mom calls them mansions) again and Jason doesn't know what to do again. His mom says he should make new friends, but she doesn't understand that all the kids on his street go to a different school and he doesn't know them and then the kids that do go to his school are mean and think he's stupid.

But Jason isn't stupid, he actually knows a lot of things. For example, he knows he has to look both ways before crossing the street and that he shouldn't talk to strangers and that Nate and Shane are his friends and he knows how to play guitar. Jason knows he isn't stupid, but he doesn't know why everyone thinks he is. Because he's really not.

His mom says new neighbors are moving in today and that's why there's a big truck parked across the street. Jason keeps seeing furniture being carried out of the truck and he wonders if that's where the people moving in used to live, but he doesn't ask his mom because she's in the kitchen and when she's in the kitchen you shouldn't talk to her.

Jason watches as all the furniture is taken out of the truck and into the house by a lot of guys who look really strong, and he thinks that maybe they should've gotten another house because it's a really big family. But then most of the family leaves in the truck and only three people are still there, standing in front of the house.

He sees a girl around his age and thinks that now Nate and Shane are going to make fun of him, even though he didn't tell her to move in and he doesn't even want to talk to her, but they probably will anyway. Even if Shane and Nate always tease him, they also defend him when other people call Jason stupid so he knows they're his friends.

Jason's mom comes out of the kitchen, carrying a big dish with what smells like lasagna. Jason loves lasagna, so he thinks that she made it for him, but she tells him that they're going to go across the street and say hi to the new neighbors and give them the lasagna.

So Jason holds his mom's hand after checking both ways before crossing the street and they walk up to the front door and ring the doorbell. For a while, no one comes, but then the door opens and the girl Jason doesn't want to talk to is standing in front of them.

"Hi, sweetie," his mom says, smiling at her. "I'm Mrs. White, and this is my son, Jason." She nudges him and he nods at her, unsure of what to do. "What's your name?" Jason's mom continues.

"I'm Caitlyn," the girl says unsurely before looking at Jason. "Do you have any friends?"

Jason nods once more but doesn't speak.

"Can they be my friends, too?" Caitlyn asks. "I don't have any friends because they're all in our old neighborhood that's really far away from here."

"Shane and Nate don't like girls," Jason answers defiantly. He doesn't want to share his friends with Caitlyn because she's a girl and boys in third grade don't like girls, or at least Shane says so. But Jason thinks he's seen Shane looking at Stella in class a lot, so he doesn't really know what to think.

"But I'm fun!" Caitlyn exclaimed. "I bet I can run faster than you can."

Jason narrows his eyes at her as his mom moves on to talk to Caitlyn's parents. "Nuh-uh!" he says.

"Yeah-uh!" Caitlyn exclaims. "You're just scared!"

Jason isn't scared because being scared is for little boys, Nate says, so he doesn't get scared, and anyway, what's scary about a girl?

"I am not scared! I bet I can get to that tree faster than you can!" Jason exclaims defiantly, and Caitlyn looks at him solemnly before they both start running.

They run and run, and Jason's legs start to hurt but he doesn't want to stop because a girl shouldn't beat a boy so he tries to run faster and faster each time until he feels like he's flying, and before he knows it, he's touching the tree trunk, but at the same time, so does Caitlyn.

Jason turns to her, expecting her to ask for a do-over, but instead she just smiles brightly and holds out her hand. "Tie," she declares, and Jason smiles back at her and shakes her hand.

"Maybe you can be my friend," Jason says. "Are you going to an rich person house like Shane and Nate do every summer?"

Caitlyn shakes her head. "I only have that house," she says, pointing at it and Jason nods.

"So can I be your friend?" Caitlyn asks, looking at him. Jason smiles shyly and nods, and Caitlyn takes his hand and pulls it before starting to skip down the road.

Maybe Shane and Nate being away all summer won't be so bad after all.


End file.
